PRAGUE -- The Czech capital's Prague-Ruzyne airport has been officially re-named Vaclav Havel Airport Prague, in honor of the first postcommunist president of Czechoslovakia and the independent Czech Republic.

Havel, who died in December 2011, would have celebrated his 76th birthday on October 5.

"Today's celebratory act is for me a concrete and tangible recognition of all that President Vaclav Havel did for the freedom and democracy in our country," Havlova said, "and a recognition for everything he did for this country in general."